


Good Fortune

by arituzz



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cats, Fluff, M/M, Watford
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-25 23:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7551835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arituzz/pseuds/arituzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baz hasn’t come back for their eighth year at Watford. Simon is too busy adoring the mysterious little feline that has taken possession of Baz’s bed to care.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Fortune

**SIMON**

_“These nights at Watford, before Baz gets here, are the only nights in my life when I actually sleep.”_

I’m running.

This is it. I’m going to die.

I’m in the Wavering Wood, Baz is running beside me.

The chimera is just a few steps behind us.

Baz keeps casting spell after spell against the beast. But he’s not powerful enough. Nobody is.

And I’m useless.

Baz is getting behind.

I turn back just in time to see the chimera leaping on Baz and slashing him dead.

I hear someone screaming. But there’s nobody around. And Baz is dead.

Dead.

I look at his inert body and it’s then when I realize that I’m the one screaming.

The chimera is coming for me.

But I’m on my knees. Frozen.

“Baz….”

I have the beast right in front of me. It steps forward.

It’s going to eat me.

I’m going to die and I can only think of Baz.

The beast opens its mouth.

That’s it.

I close my eyes and wait to be devoured.

But then I feel something wet and rough on my face. Something like _a tongue_.

I open my eyes.

Two little grey eyes staring at me.

I’m on my bed, at Watford. It was just a dream. A nightmare.

And I have a cat on my bed.

“Hey…” I lift a hand to stroke its fur, but it gets scared and runs to Baz’s bed.

I close my eyes and fall asleep again.

—

The cat is still on Baz’s bed when I wake up. Sleeping.

It looks like one of those Egyptian cat statues.

Posing. Even while sleeping.

I make to caress its pitch black fur but the movement startles it and hisses at me.

I step back.

The cute little thing keeps staring at me like it was plotting something.

I’m calling it Plotty.

—

When I come back from lunch—to take a nap—Plotty is still on Baz’s bed, in the same stoic position. So posh. So graceful.

It hisses at me as I come into the room.

“Chill…”

Plotty turns its head and continues sleeping.

I just hope it leaves a lot of hair on Baz’s bed. That would piss him off big time.

—

I come back to the room before dinner.

“Plotty! I’ve brought you some food.”

The cat jumps from the bed and smells the cherry scones that I’ve left on the floor. It licks them suspiciously.

“Hey… I’ll eat them if you don’t want them! Don’t be rude, Plotty.”

If looks could kill, this cat would’ve already murdered me at least ten times. Especially when I call it Plotty.

I try to pat its head but the cat quickly grabs the scone with its mouth and rushes onto Baz’s bed.

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it.” I place the rest of the scones on Baz’s bed, before leaving for dinner.

—

I bring Plotty food every day, and milk. Even though I know he—Penny said it’s a he—goes into the catacombs to hunt some rats, I followed him once.

Penny is so jealous that I get to have a pet whereas she has to deal with a pixie and her girlfriend.

Yeah, having Plotty is pretty great. He greets me with meows and rubs his head against my legs as I come in. He even lets me pat his head now. But still hisses at me sometimes. I still think it’s a progress.

—

I wake up in the middle of the night. Panting. Another nightmare.

I feel something warm at my feet. Plotty. He’s sleeping peacefully. I wonder if he comes every  night. I wonder if he leaves every morning before I wake up. I wish he didn’t.

I like the warmth of his small body. It feels nice. It makes me feel that I’m not alone.

—

Plotty sleeps with me every night now. I take him onto the bed and he curls up right beside me, or even _on_ me sometimes.

He lets me pet him at my whim and purrs when I do it. It’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

And he does this thing: when I pet him under the chin he cranes his head up in approval.

He licks me a lot and there’s rarely any hissing anymore. I’m so proud of him.

I talk to him about Baz and all the places where he could be. About how he is always plotting like him.

“He’s probably hiding somewhere. Sitting gracefully on an armchair and drinking tea while plotting my downfall.”

Plotty just licks my hand and curls up on my lap.

—

Penny and I are doing homework in my room. Well, _she_ is doing homework and I’m copying hers.

“Simon, you should at least try to do it!”

“But it’s useless, Penny!” I complain. I still can’t control my magic after all these years. “I wish I could be a cat, like Plotty.” He’s on my lap, again. I stroke the middle of his forehead, from between the eyes to the top of his head. Plotty closes his eyes and purrs in agreement. “So I could lie around all day like this little fellow,” I say, burying my nose on Plotty’s fur.

“Simon…”

I turn my attention to Penny, who is looking at us, stranged.

“What?”

“Has this cat been here from the beginning of the school year?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Uhm… Simon… look at him. He has long black hair. Grey eyes. Doesn’t he remind you of anybody?”

“I don’t know, Penny. Ezra Miller?”

“Try again.”

“Jade Hassouné? Avan Jogia?”

“Merlin and Morgana, Simon.” Penelope lifts her ring and points it at Plotty. “ ** _As you were!_** ”

I try to protect him from the spell but Plotty is not Plotty anymore. It’s a human-size plotter. Baz. On my lap.

“Wh-” I start. “I don’t…” I look at Baz, bewildered.

“Thank you, Bunce,” he says, standing up, before leaving the room.

—

It’s already midnight and Baz hasn’t come back. And my bed suddenly feels too big for just one person.

I doze off into sleep as I always do: thinking about where Baz could be.

—

I wake up some while later. It’s still dark. But I can’t sleep. I look for Plotty on my bed and then I remember. Plotty is Baz. And he’s on his bed now, I can hear him breathing.

I get up and approach him silently. He’s on his side, his back turned on me.

I quietly slip into his bed and hug him under the covers.

“Snow.” So he’s awake. “What are you doing?”

“I need you… to help me sleep.”

Silence.

“Okay,” he whispers after what feels like hours. He must think I’m already sleeping.

I tighten my grip on him and let myself drop into sleep.

—

We establish it as a routine. We bicker with each other during the day and curl together in bed at night.

Baz takes my hands and soothes me when I have nightmares. I whisper in his ear and hold him firmly whenever he has restless sleep.

—

“Snow.”

I’m in the Wavering Wood, again. Baz lying on the floor.

“Simon.”

The chimera is coming at me, but I don’t care. I take Baz’s body in my arms and hold him tightly. Baz.

“Simon, wake up.”

“Uh…?”

“It was just a nightmare.” Baz is looking at me, holding my hands. His face is so close to mine. “You were screaming my name.”

“You were dead.”

“Is that what your dreams are about? You killing me?” He looks disappointed.

“No!” He’s let go of me, so I reach to hold his hands again. “No… They’re _nightmares_. In which you die. It’s not me… I don’t kill you. I…”

I move one hand to his face and rest it on his cheek. I’m not good at words. But I’m good at this.

I close the distance between our faces and brush his lips with mine. That’s it. That’s what I’ve been wanting to do for a while and couldn’t quite pinpoint.

I move my lips with his and tilt his head to kiss him deeper. Our tongues meet and savour each other with passion. Almost desperation. Can I please establish this as a night routine?

“I miss petting you,” I say after a while.

Baz only harrumphs but lets me pat his head, anyway.

“I want you to be my pet,” I say.

“And what would that make you, my owner?”

“Your… companion.”

“Snow,” Baz says, I can hear the doubt in his voice. “Is that you asking me to be your boyfriend?”

“If you want to. Do you want to?”

“Only if you shut up and pet me.”

I take his face in my hands and kiss him again. I can’t help thinking about the good fortune that little black cat has brought me.

-FIN-


End file.
